Saturday, January 18, 2020
/public-file/168/Ultra/71836f91-db7c-4deb-ab63-4a5ca1b3efb2.jpeg
To know my mother is to know a vibrant, funny, caring, generous, beautiful person. She is quick to make friends, and even quicker to be there for someone in need. That makes what she went through even more heartbreaking.
For several years my mother was seeing many different doctors for what was thought to be various health issues that were unrelated. She continued to decline with no real answers until we saw a neurologist at the Dent Institute that was finally able to put all the pieces together and finally give us answers in the form of a diagnosis of Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) type-c (formerly known as Shy-Drager Syndrome). While it was not the answer we all wanted to hear, at least there was finally an answer as to what is happening to her. There is no effective treatment or cure for MSA. It is progressive and terminal, and has well earned it’s nickname of “The Beast”. This extremely rare disease affects approximately 2 in 100,000 people.
Watching what this horrible disease has done to this amazing woman is nothing short of tragic. There is very little research on MSA due to how rare it is and lack of funding.
If you are able to contribute even $1 to the MSA Coalition to help fund research in the hope that others won’t have to go through what my mother is, thank you so much.
If you are unable to donate monetarily, then give a stranger a smile, help someone that needs your help, reach out to that person you lost touch with.... and think of my mother when you brighten someone’s day even a little bit, because that’s what she would do. And above all, if you are lucky enough to still have your mother, give her a hug or at least a call and tell her what she means to you because you never know when you won’t be able to do that again...
If you read my whole rambling post, thank you for your time.
